Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has warned that extreme online pornography is “radicalising” certain young men by making violence against women seem acceptable, reports Breaking News.
Mr Harris said there have been instances where gardaí needed to explain to those responsible for violent sexual attacks why their actions were wrong.
Mr Harris is set to leave his role as Commissioner in September, concluding a seven-year term, reports Breaking News.
He delivered his final address to the Policing Authority on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, he shared his concerns about the widespread access to online pornography.
He said: “I think the use of the expression hard-core is no longer relevant. The pornography which is readily accessible on the internet is extreme in the violence that it perpetrates, mostly against women. What happens then is that young men see this and this is a major influence on them in terms of what they think a sexual relationship is. We see this manifest in serious sexual assaults where, literally, it has to be explained to them what they did was wrong. Because seeing this violent behaviour has become so normalised,” reports Breaking News.
He added: “There is a trend in the violent behaviour of the offending which you can relate back to the imagery which is in pornography, which is so prevalent on the internet. That has been also observed by the various studies, Women’s Aid recently released a report and that was their conclusion as well. My analysis of this is probably more anecdotal. As I look at the incidents and what is described, but also what the responses of the various assailants, perpetrators are, one can see that they have become normalised to the violence that they are seeing online,” reports Breaking News.
Mr Harris said some men’s view of a normal sexual relationship had become “completely distorted”.
He added: “You can say almost that they have been radicalised. I do think there is an education piece for this. We have heard a lot over the last few weeks about limiting the access of children to all sorts of violent imagery, I think that’s a good thing,” reports Breaking News.
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